This invention relates generally to the art of fluid sprinkling and more particularly to the manufacture of snow. Specifically, the present invention relates to snow making towers for manufacturing snow on ski slopes and the like.
The present invention pertains to improvements in snow making towers of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,151, issued Apr. 2, 1991, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,427, issued Oct. 20, 1998.
These former inventions for artificially producing snow consist of method and apparatus for making snow through the use of snow towers wherein water is supplied under pressure to a point of discharge well above ground level and adjacent the top end of the tower where it is discharged through a first water nozzle into ambient freezing atmosphere in the form of spray. The spray is preferably a high velocity spray of discrete water particles, sometimes referred to as a fine water spray.
Air is also supplied independently under pressure to a second point of discharge at the top of the snow tower and there discharged through an orifice to form a jet of air which is directed to interact with the aforementioned water spray thereby forming a plume of atomized or nucleated water. This atomized water forms ice seed crystals in a freezing atmosphere, and through the dwell time of the long fall from the top of the tower to the ground, forms snow.
These afore-referenced patents also increase the efficiency of the water tower in cold or subfreezing ambient conditions by adding additional water discharge nozzles near the top of the tower which discharge additional water spray to also eventually interact with the plume already created.
While these prior art systems are extremely efficient and effective, it is always desirable to make larger quantities of excellent quality snow at higher ambient temperatures with greater efficiency and less use of compressed air, which is the most expensive component required in the system.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide apparatus for making snow at even higher marginal subfreezing temperatures, and to do so at excellent efficiency rates at a low cost and to do so with the use of less compressed air.